Animation
Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85
While Netflix says that the animated ‘Stranger Things: Tales From ’85’ is a kinder, gentler sort of ‘Stranger Things’ show, that hardly makes it kind or gentle.
Kevin has a pretty good setup. He lives in a swanky New York City apartment, and his roommates, a happy couple named Dana and Dan, are kind enough to cover the rent. Since he doesn’t need to work, he spends most of his time lounging around, watching TV, taking naps, and eating the food his roommates are nice enough to serve him.
In case it wasn’t obvious, Kevin is a house cat.
Or, more accurately, Kevin was a house cat, until Dana and Dan broke some unfortunate news. Turns out the happy couple isn’t as happy as Kevin thought. In fact, they’re actively unhappy, and Dana is moving out.
This rocks Kevin’s tiny little world. And to add insult to injury, Dana assumes that she’s bringing him along when she leaves. The nerve! As if feeding him, scooping his litter and generally keeping him alive means she owns him? Insulted, Kevin decides his days with humans are over. He’s dropping the “house” in “house cat” and embracing the outdoors, just as his ancestors intended.
That lasts about thirty seconds.
See, all that lounging around has made Kevin a bit too soft for the big wide world. But he’s still not sure he wants to go back to living with humans, and Dana and Dan are getting the silent treatment for the foreseeable future. What’s an ex-house cat to do?
Kevin’s identity crisis leads him to a shelter with the strangest collection of animals in New York City. There’s Glenn, a squirrel determined to end the stigma against keeping squirrels as pets; Cupcake, a feral alley cat who hangs out for the food; Judy, a sweet-but-sickly kitten that made her own vet say “ew,” and many more.
Kevin may be deciding what to do with his nine lives, but there’s an upside: He’s not nearly as crazy as his new housemates. Yet.
If a cartoon about a cat in New York City sounds like wholesome, family-friendly fun, think again. Kevin is anything but wholesome.
In the world of this animated series, animals can talk and communicate with humans, and boy, do they have some foul things to say. Language is constant, and the humor is about as vulgar as you can get. Sexual content isn’t explicitly shown, but crude references are often made, and much of the attempted humor includes graphic dialogue. Substance abuse is also an issue; Cupcake openly deals drugs outside the shelter, and both humans and animals drink heavily at the local bar.
Kevin is another entry in a long line of adult animation that substitutes vulgarity for comedy, and it’s worth avoiding. Unlike real cats, which famously always land on their feet, this series can’t take two steps without face-planting.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
When his owners break up, a house cat named Kevin moves into an adoption shelter with an eccentric group of animals looking for homes.
If you know anything about cats, you know that the species’ anus is, well, a prominent feature. The show milks that for all it’s worth. Kevin’s prominent feature is prolapsed, which characters joke very crudely about at every opportunity. During the opening credits, he cleans it by…well, licking it, in the way that cats do.
One of Kevin’s friends, an alcoholic goose, makes graphic references to his deformed genitalia, and he uses it as a corkscrew to open a bottle of wine (this isn’t shown onscreen). When he urinates, it flies in a spiral around the room, disgusting Kevin.
Kevin’s former owners Dana and Dan lived together before they broke up, and a spider living in their bedroom tells Dan she used to watch them have sex. A horse begs Kevin to come to her burlesque show, using graphic language to describe her performance. Seth, the human owner of the shelter, warns the animals not to sexually misbehave at an adoption event.
Kevin and other characters drink beer at a bar. Cupcake, a feral cat who hangs out at the shelter, sells drugs on the street. We see her take a handful of opioids and immediately pass out. She and Armando, another cat at the shelter, also smoke cigarettes.
The f-word is used 14 times, and the s-word is used 11. “B–ch” is used five times. “A–“ is used three times, and “d–n” is used two. “H—” and “b–tard” are each used once. Graphic references are made to genitalia four times, twice as an insult. God’s name is taken in vain five times.
Lauren Cook is serving as a 2021 summer intern for the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family. She is studying film and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. You can get her talking for hours about anything from Star Wars to her family to how Inception was the best movie of the 2010s. But more than anything, she’s passionate about showing how every form of art in some way reflects the Gospel. Coffee is a close second.
While Netflix says that the animated ‘Stranger Things: Tales From ’85’ is a kinder, gentler sort of ‘Stranger Things’ show, that hardly makes it kind or gentle.
Based on a series from Virgin River’s author, this Canadian camp has less content than most shows, but some elements may make you a little cross.
Netflix’s newest show is well done, you might say. But Plugged In has a beef with some of its problems.
